ROCK SPRINGS – When it comes to the Southwest Wyoming Regional Airport, one question has been on a lot of minds in Sweetwater County.
“When are they going to finish the terminal?”
Former Green River Mayor George Eckman was the person asking that during a presentation about the airport’s 20-year master plan Wednesday evening. Under the original timeline, the new terminal should have been completed by now. Yet, the airport terminal’s services are only now moving into a temporary structure to house them as work inside the building ramps up. Litigation has a way of stretching things out.
According to SWRA Director Devon Brubaker, the new completion date for the terminal rehabilitation project is October 2025. This comes after the airport filed a lawsuit against the original contractor for the project and rebid it, with a new contractor taking the reins. While Brubaker isn’t able to talk much about the ongoing litigation between the airport and the original contractor, which isn’t expected to end anytime soon, he isn’t shy about saying how pleased he is with how work is going now.
“We’re really happy with the work they’re doing,” he said.
Brubaker said he understands the impacts of having the terminal looking as it does right now. Living at the airport, he sees it every day, including his days off. It’s the first and last thing a visitor to Sweetwater County sees, and that can leave a lasting impression. However, Brubaker says the new facility when it’s complete will address several issues not only within the terminal, but with parking, navigation, and lighting outside.
Thursday morning, work began after the final flight from the terminal left at 10:20 a.m. Brubaker said he spoke to the passengers of the flight, informing them they were the last group to fly from the terminal until it is reopened. What followed was a highly-organized operation moving all equipment from ticket counters and computers to vending machines to the temporary structure erected next to the terminal. The 9,000 square foot structure will house every service the terminal provided until the terminal building work is completed. Construction workers, along with others working for Delta Airlines, LR Communications, Western Wyoming Beverages and others moved and re-installed the infrastructure and equipment supporting the terminal. Brubaker said weekly meetings with all the stakeholders in the terminal were hosted to ensure the move was completed as quickly as possible as things needed to happen in a specific order.
As work to prepare the terminal for a full-scale construction project commenced, Brubaker immediately targeted a semitransparent sheet of plastic hanging near the rental car desk and tore it down by hand. The plastic covered an area that had already had some work done by the previous contractor and was a divider between the then area still accessible to the public and the closed off work space. Brubaker said the plastic sheet irritated him during the past two years and criticized the logic that led to it being hung up.
Brubaker said the structure could stand for 50 years if needed and said the airport is in talks with another organization where the airport would purchase it at the end of the project, then sell it to that organization. If that doesn’t happen, the structure and the walls inside will be taken down and stored until they’re used by another airport.
One thing commercial passengers can look forward to is using the new seating that will be later installed in the terminal. The passenger waiting area has the new seating already placed. Brubaker said the airport ordered some of the new waiting area seats ahead of time and is already utilizing them in the temporary structure.
Speaking about the progress finally taking shape at the commercial terminal, Brubaker said Thursday was an important day for the ongoing project.
“After everything we’ve been through … everything the county has been through, this is a big day,” he said.
